A Few points + Player Ratings

[KK07]

You just beat me to it Blacky mate,great reply.

We've played **** all games to be resting players.
And even if we are,we cannot afford to rest vital players,especially two or three at atime.

We should've picked up 3pts tonight,end of!

[mick the click]

I think if we are rating players and the match then we also have to rate Rafa.

I think Rafa got it wrong tonight,big time.
While an away win in Europe is always a good result,you also have to win the games that are there for the taking.

PSV are not a great side and we could have easliy won if the right players were on from the start or longer.

My main gripe with the team tonight are the midfield and Rafa's subs.
Neither Momo or Zenden made any kind of deep run into the box to support the front two.
If Xabi and Gerard were on we would have seen both Gerard berake into the box and our wide players recieving more service.

This is where I think Pennant is getting a bad rap,With Gerard and Xabi playing we would have controled the midfield and our wingers would have had more of a forward roll.

Instead both Aurelio and Pennant had to come back and cover in the center far too often as posession was given away.

Up front and at the back we were fine,a few slips and blips but they happen in every game.

We can't keep having one eye on the next game,if thats what happened tonight, and need to play our best team from the start.

Agree entirely (Except it's Gerrard)- that game was ours.

[TheElephantMan]

"Finnan: 6/10 - Solid if unspectacular, didnt get forward as much as he does at his best. One very fine interception inside the box."

I thought Finnan was our best player tonight.

[blacky]

Well said Kenny. I hate coming on here and being negative but that was a game we should have won tonight. A great team should almost pick itself. It's not as if we have a squad full of worldclass players. We have players like Reina, Finnan, Alonso, Hyppia, Gerrard, Riise, Carra, Momo and Possibly Bellers & Kuyt that are our core players. These players should be only rotated out one or two at a time and never two from the same position. It's the start of the season so I don't understand why Rafa feels the need to rest players so much!!

[paulcooper4]

oh well, i`ll be the one to go against the flow and say,

1 - Momo was awesome
2 - How the **** did we go looking for a draw? away in europe you go to not concede, and also nick a goal or two. we never conceded and were very unfortunate to not score. Was an excellent performance. We controlled a very strong team on there own ground.
3 - Pennant played very well, ran his balls off, although this caught up with him about 10-15 minutes into the second half, as his legs turned to lead.
4 - Warnock was outstanding, as was agger and carra. Finnan much improved too after his ****ty derby display.
5 - Zenden truly is ****, i cant argue there
6 - If bellamy can get his quality to match his workrate, we will have some player. I doubt this though
7 - Kuyt is absolutely ****in brilliant. Strength, awareness, fitness, technique are all outstanding

[shadow]

All good points lads

Reina - 7 - Looked better, a lot more confident and solid

Finnan - 7 - same as above, didnt get forward to much but did well against the cisse lookalike whenever he drifted wide

Carra - 7 - A good 1st half but looked tired towards the end but dependable as usual

Agger - 9 MOM - Really looked the part tonight and really grew into the game and was our most dominant defender, distribution was good too

Warnock - 7 - same as carra for me, looked tired towards the end, a good 1st half but struggled a bit in the 2nd

Pennant - 6 - his most disappointing performance so far, worked hard 1st half but kept looking to drift and come inside( surely Rafa's instructions) ala Stevie G's role, needs to hug the line and deliver

Momo - 8 - ran the show in the 1st half bossing everyone and everything, lost his way a bit 2nd period with Zenden going missing so started giving the ball away far too much

Zenden - 6 - I thought he started well with energy but went missing totally 2nd half and looked out of his depth. Must remeber these are the only big games he is likely to play in and if it came to the crunch away from home in the CL he would not be in. The Carling Cup beckons.

Aurelio - 6 - looked very nervous to me and his delivery was poor throughout. I think he needs a solid run at LM for him to get going but he looks nothing more than a squad player at moment.

Bellers - 7 - good energy and desire to have the ball and gave the defence something to think about throughout. he just needs to add some more intelligence and thinking to his play esp his runs to really kick on.

Kuyt - 7 - a good debut in his homeland you can tell he is a very clever player and with time to get to know his teammates esp Stevie and Xabi you can see he will cause teams all sorts of trouble, he loves a pop at goal too which is great to see.

A final point that has to be mentioned that our team tonight really had little CL experience as a team, a lot of players new to the competiton as well as being new to the team so Rafa was always gonna be cautious with Chelsea coming up. CL is a different level and different type of games for loads of our team tonight so I thought they handled it ok against a reasonable side away from home.

[Sir Bob]

The "1st choice 11" have not played yet this season!! I know players need rest but do you agree with Rafa's constant mass rotation. We may have got the result tonight but on another we might not have. At no time did we paly fluid football but instead relied on counter attack football and the guile of Kuyt and speed of Bellamy.

In a perfect world the best 11 (whoever) that may be, would play when fit but like it or not the game today is a squad game. To win the CL you play 13 games. Plus 38 in the league plus FA Cup, League Cup & Internationals. Our best players can't play in all games, particulary 3 tough away games in 8 days. Rafa has to prioritise which games he considers the most important & he obviously felt tonight was less important than Chelsea, and I agree. The league must be our priority & to win it, we must take points off our main rivals. Last season we lost took 4 points from our games against Chelsea, Man U & Arsenal. To have any chance of wining the league we must take alot more points from our rivals. That starts on sunday.

Thanks to Rafa's team selection tonight, we have a better chance of taking points off Chelsea than if SG, Alonso & co. had played 90 minutes tonight. That being the case I 100% agree with Rafa's team selection tonight.

[blacky]

I appreciate the modern game being a squad game and I understand the need to rotate players to keep them fresh. However doing this every game at the level that Rafa is doing it i.e up to 5 changes per game can only be disruptive to the natural rythm of a team. Players are creatures of habit and need to play with each other week in week out to develop a good understanding of each others game.

[paulcooper4]

I appreciate the modern game being a squad game and I understand the need to rotate players to keep them fresh. However doing this every game at the level that Rafa is doing it i.e up to 5 changes per game can only be disruptive to the natural rythm of a team. Players are creatures of habit and need to play with each other week in week out to develop a good understanding of each others game.

do you not think tonights was a very good result and performance?
Also, the very players your talking about were utter ****e on saturday

[Sir Bob]

I appreciate the modern game being a squad game and I understand the need to rotate players to keep them fresh. However doing this every game at the level that Rafa is doing it i.e up to 5 changes per game can only be disruptive to the natural rythm of a team. Players are creatures of habit and need to play with each other week in week out to develop a good understanding of each others game.

I agree that Rafa makes alot of changes but usually he keeps the back 4 pretty much in tact, although, he hasn't always done this this season.

The proof of the pudding will come later on in the season. If, by making so many changes, we lose touch with Man U & Chelsea then perhaps Rafa will have to re think for next season. If on the other hand we can finish the season strongly and put a serious title challenge together then Rafa will be vindicated.

I'm not surprised at Rafa's constant changes, he did it at Valencia. when they won their 2 league titles, they finished the season very strongly. Rafa put much of this down to squad rotation early in the season as his players were still relatively fresh whilst at Barca & Madrid, their players felt the effects of a long hard season.

Rafa's obviously trying the same tactic this season. i thibk he feels the squad is now strong enough to win matches against decent opposition with some key players resting up for the 'big' games around the corner.

[G_Man]

I thought Agger was SUPOIB! Rock solid in defence, faultless in distribution.

I gave him 10 on 10 ; he couldn't have done anything better.

[FowlerLeftFoot]

I would give Warnock a 7.5. He should be the first choice until Riise gets back. Very solid performance and one of the most underated players in the team.

Warnock: 6/10 - See Finnan, provided a solid left side with Aurelio.

[Howard_lfc]

My two penneth :-

Zenden, Pennant and Aurelio were all poor.

Was anybody else concerned that our cb's weren't protected enough? I always felt that Farfan was gonna receive the ball into feet and our cb's were (very) tight and that he was gonna wriggle through and score. The service into him should have been stopped.
I also think Pennant didn't do enough to help Finnan in the second half when Kone moved out to the left. It was always an 'out ball' for them and we never blocked it off.

I hope Rafa keeps Dirk and Bellend together on Sunday. There looked to be a bit of understanding between them already. For me - when kuyt receives the ball deep and gets his chin up - he plays like Mark Hughes did in his heyday. We have some player here. He'll be a huge hit - so long as Rafa doesn't rotate him too much.

Finally the ref. Thought he was harsh with handball decisions against us and let some high challenges for PSV go unpunished.

Decent performance - but it's a game we could - and should - have won.

H

[Morph]

All these people who keep saying Pennant was poor, should go and have another look at the match, he was one of the best players in the first half, along with Agger. He tired in the second half but i feel that was because of the amount of running he had to do to pick the ball up cos Zenden was doing bollox all.

[JRG]

I must have watched a different game last night as I thought Pennat was decent. I wish he'd take on defenders more often as he has the apce and can get round them. His crosses weren't brilliant , but his work rate and commitment until he tired was good.

That was IMO a good result in the context of all the games we have to play and keeping a clean sheet will benefit the team as a whole.

Aurelio needs more time to settle, but it was a mistake not pleing Speedy from teh beginning. Overall I think we should be comfortable with last night's results and hopeful with the partnership of Kuyt and Bellamy.

My two penn'orth for you.